Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerRutgers University sign in New Brunswick in a 2002 photo.

NEW BRUNSWICK — The average Rutgers University undergraduate will pay $12,559 in tuition and fees this fall — nearly double the cost of attending the state university a decade ago — under a plan approved by the school’s board during a tense meeting in New Brunswick today.

The 4-percent hike was relatively low because the Legislature has capped tuition increases at New Jersey’s four-year public colleges in the new state budget. But the tuition increase, coupled with hikes in mandatory fees, will keep Rutgers among the most expensive state colleges in the country.

Rutgers officials said decreasing financial support for higher education from Trenton leaves them no choice but to ask the university’s 53,000 students to pick up more of the bill.

"The recent economic recession has severely limited state government’s ability to provide adequate funding for New Jersey’s public colleges and universities and has exacerbated a long-term trend in declining state support for higher education in the Garden State," Rutgers President Richard McCormick said.

This fall, the average in-state Rutgers undergraduate will pay $9,926 in tuition and $2,633 in fees — for a total of $12,559, under the plan approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors. By comparison, Rutgers students paid $6,333 in tuition and fees during the 2000-01 school year.

Students who live on campus will also see a 5.1 percent rise in room and board costs this fall. When all of the tuition, fees, room and board increases are added together, the average Rutgers undergraduate living on campus will pay $23,465, or 5.4 percent more than last year.

The increases include a new mandatory $200 "Capital Improvement Fee" to pay the growing debt service on money Rutgers borrowed to build new academic buildings. The introduction of a new fee allowed Rutgers to go above the 4 percent cap on tuition and fee increases imposed by the Legislature, school officials said.

Rutgers senior Jonathan Nycz said all of the increases — which total about $1,200 for in-state undergraduates who live on campus — will be a burden for students struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy. Nycz, the non-voting student representative on the board, said he and many of his classmates have been unable to find summer jobs or internships this year despite intense searching.

"The tough economic times are not just being felt by the university," said Nycz, 21, of Clifton.

Graduate students and out-of-state students will also be hit with increases under the new tuition plan. In-state graduate student tuition will go up 4 percent to $600 a credit. Out-of-state undergraduate tuition will increase to $21,388 per year, a 6 percent hike.

The tutition plan also includes an additional $3.5 million in student aid to help low-income students cover the hikes.

The 11-member board voted unanimously to approve the increases and a $2 billion university budget during a sometimes-raucous meeting before a standing-room-only crowd in Winants Hall. The proceedings were frequently interrupted by members of Rutgers’ labor unions, who were protesting the university’s recent freeze on the salaries of all 13,000 campus employees.

The crowd chanted "Shame on you!" repeatedly after the board voted to approve the budget. Earlier in the day, hundreds of union members held a rally nearby.

"We are absolutely serious in our position that Rutgers management has made an unethical, unfair and foolish decision to repudiate our contracts," said Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers.

Several members of the Rutgers board questioned the priorities in the budget. George Zoffinger, who is nearing the end of his term on the board, criticized the growing amount of debt Rutgers has taken on and the nearly $11 million that comes out of the university budget to subsidize the athletic department.

"I want to continue to raise the red flag," Zoffinger said.

Tuition at New Jersey’s public colleges continues to be among the highest in the nation. The University of Maryland will charge its in-state undergraduates $8,416 in tuition and fees next year, several thousand dollars less than Rutgers. The University of Delaware will charge $8,540. The State University of New York charged its in-state undergraduates $6,170 last year.

Rutgers senior John Aspray questioned why the university was raising fees to cover new dining halls and other construction students may not want or need.

"I wish there was some sort of transparency at the university ... so I could see where the money goes," said Aspray, 20, a public policy major from Maryland.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-LedgerMembers of AFSCME Locals 888 (maintenance and janitorial) of Rutgers University and professors and administrative staff hold a rally to protest their salary freeze outside of Old Queens Campus in New Brunswick today before the board meeting.